'Last chance!' Elton tickets selling for $700 above cost

The capital letters, exclamation marks and phrases on ticketing website ViaGoGo suggest Mackay fans have missed their chance of seeing Sir Elton John perform live in Mackay.

But the biggest message from promoters to Elton fans is: Don't panic. The general sale for tickets hasn't even started yet.

Pre-sale tickets went on sale at 10am Thursday to Elton's BB Print Stadium Mackay September concert, and sellers using the ticket scalping website are already ripping off fans.

Two tickets that should only cost fans $358 were listed on ViaGoGo for $1060.37 - a whopping $702.37 above what people should be paying.

Cas Garvey

The bulk of the tickets will go on sale next Tuesday, March 14 at 9am via Moshtix.

Many Mackay fans are lucky to already have secured seats in this morning's pre-sale, despite waiting in the queue for 15-40 minutes, including Jessica Wells.

"Was on the website at exactly 10am and only just got confirmed for my tickets! An error message came up every time I tried selecting any tickets then I finally got my selection after 35 minutes," she said.

Kacey Noy found it easier than that. "Got my confirmation email at 10.03am for our tickets. I was lucky enough to get back in and grab some more for friends having issues," she said.

Deonie Lenahan said it took her 19 minutes to purchase platinum tickets.

"I was online right on 10am... email (confirmation received) ... gold seating was already sold out fast... did have to wait and page did refresh itself very quickly but we got there," she said.

With the pre-sale selling out in two hours, Chugg Entertainment is urging fans not to give in and buy overpriced tickets before the general sale on Tuesday.

"Please, please, please just wait until next week, there's plenty of time to get tickets," a Chugg spokeswoman said.

"We don't want to see people paying hundreds of dollars more when there are so many tickets still to be released."

But despite charging so much for tickets, ticketing website ViaGoGo is not breaking any laws.

A state government spokeswoman told the Mercury today that the Elton John Mackay convert was not deemed a 'major event' covered by the Major Event Act, which makes it illegal for scalpers to sell tickets more than 10% of the purchase price.